Parliamentary cooperation – important pillar of Vietnam-Russia ties

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (right) and visiting Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Viktorovich Volodin (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The top legislators of Vietnam and Russia have
agreed that the parliamentary cooperation is one of the important pillars of
the partnership between Vietnam and Russia.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and visiting Chairman of the
State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Viktorovich
Volodin reached the consensus during their talks in Hanoi on December 24.

The collaboration between the Vietnamese NA and the State Duma in particular
and the Federal Assembly in general has developed fruitfully over the past
time, both bilaterally and multilaterally, they said.

The two sides have actively implemented a cooperation agreement signed in 2013,
while regularly maintaining the exchange of high-ranking delegations and those
of the legislatures’ agencies and friendship parliamentarians’ groups as well
as sharing experience in legislation and supervision, thus improving the
operational efficiency of each country’s parliament. They have also coordinated
with and supported each other at multilateral parliamentary cooperation
mechanisms.

The State Duma Chairman said the two countries’ parliamentary ties should
continue to be fostered. The two sides need to create a new foundation in the
legislation field in order to create a momentum for the bilateral relations to
further thrive in the future.

Sharing the outcomes of his meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the
Russian guest said the two sides exchanged views on several projects and
experience in building e-government and the digital economy. He affirmed that
the Russian side is ready to support Vietnam in these fields.

The leaders agreed that tourism cooperation between the two countries has seen
gigantic development, with increases in the numbers of Russian visitors to
Vietnam and Vietnamese arrivals to Russia.

According to the State Duma Chairman, in 2017, 512,000 Russians visited Vietnam
and the figure rose to over 700,000 this year. Russia is expected to be named
in the top 10 sources of visitors to Vietnam.

Russia is also willing to provide more scholarships to Vietnam to train Russian
language teachers in high schools, in addition to 1,000 scholarships provided
for Vietnamese students, he added.

NA Chairwoman Ngan spoke highly of Russia’s increase of scholarships for
Vietnam, expressing her belief that this is an important human resource for
Vietnam as well as a firm foundation for the closer friendship between the two
nations in the future.

She thanked the Russian people for giving their good sentiments and valuable
assistance to Vietnam during the national construction and defence.

Vietnam always treasures and prioritises consolidating its comprehensive
strategic partnership with Russia, and wishes to bolster the effective
cooperation between the two countries and their localities in all fields, she
said.

Both host and guest agreed with pleasure that the bilateral political ties have
been continuously consolidated via the regular exchange of all-level
delegations. They expressed their belief that together with the Russia visit by
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen
Phu Trong in September and the visit to Vietnam by Russian Prime Minister
Dmitry Medvedev in November, this visit by the Chairman of the State Duma will
create a strong driving force to boost the two nations’ all-round
collaboration.

The
top legislator used the occasion to thank Russia for backing Vietnam’s run for
non-permanent seat at the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure.

Both noted with pleasure progress made in the bilateral economic, trade and
investment ties since the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian
Economic Union (EAEU) took effect in October 2016, with two-way trade reaching
3.55 billion USD in 2017 and 3.85 billion USD in the first ten months of this
year.

NA Chairwoman Ngan suggested the
two countries fully tap potential for economic, trade and investment
cooperation, making it match with the sound political relations, optimise
advantages generated by the Vietnam-EAEU FTA, and remove non-tariff barriers,
especially those against farm produce and seafood.

The affiliation in energy, especially oil and gas, should continue to be an
important pillar of the Vietnam-Russia cooperation, she said, lauding the plan
to expand collaboration between oil and gas companies of the two countries in
such spheres as liquefied natural gas (LNG),
electrification and motor fuel production, she said.

She added that the two countries hold substantial potential for cooperation in
the high-tech sector, covering e-Government building in Vietnam and the
development of the global navigation satellite system (GLONASS).

Achievements have also been recorded in partnerships in national defence and
security, military technology, education-training, science-technology, culture
and tourism, the leader said.

She stressed Vietnam’s support for the initiative to establish the
inter-parliamentary cooperation committee between the Vietnamese NA and the State Duma, and expressed her belief
that the committee will operate effectively, contributing to enhancing
coordination between the two legislatures.

Host and guest agreed that the committee will meet annually in rotation except
one of them has other suggestions. The first meeting is slated for 2019 in Vietnam.

V.V.Volodin invited Ngan to pay an official visit to Russia at an early date.
The Vietnamese top legislator accepted the invitation with pleasure.

Following their talks, the leaders signed an agreement on the establishment of
the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee, which aims to promote
cooperation between the two legislative bodies.

It is also expected to create conditions for the two sides to exchange
experience in legislation, supervision and decision making on major national
matters and join hands in inter-parliamentary activities within international
organisations and conferences, covering cooperation in Asia-Europe.

The committee will also work to help expand and enhance cooperation between
Vietnam and Russia across fields and assist the supervision of the
implementation of valid international treaties between the two countries.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan (right) and Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Viktorovich Volodin host the joint press conference. (Photo: VNA)

At their joint press conference later, Ngan said the State Duma delegation’s visit
is very significant and a continuation of visit exchange to bolstering the
extensive cooperation between the two countries and their legislative bodies,
adding that it marks a new development step in the comprehensive strategic
partnership between Vietnam and Russia.

She said the Vietnamese National Assembly and the State Duma will do their
utmost to support the bilateral cooperation across the fields and provide a
favourable legal framework to step up the trade, economic, investment, and
tourism cooperation and people-to-people exchanges at all levels.

“The
outstanding result of this visit is the signing of an agreement on the establishment
of the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee between the National Assembly
and the State Duma. The Vietnam National Assembly has for the first time formed
such a bilateral inter-parliamentary mechanism with another parliament,” said
Ngan.

“The new mechanism demonstrates the political trust between the two countries’
leaders as well as the determination to boost the parliamentary cooperation
between the two countries. It will allow the two countries to increase their
partnership in fields with potentials, especially the parliamentary cooperation,
thus taking the two country’s traditional cooperation to the next level,” she
added.

The State Duma Chairman added that the inter-parliamentary cooperation committee
is a new cooperative form that will create more impetus for the development of
cooperation between the two sides in various fields, including the digital
economy. It will become a new platform to seek new cooperative fields for the
two countries in the future.

As Vietnam and Russia have involved in the comprehensive strategic partnership,
the relations between the two parliamentary agencies need to be boosted so it
will contribute to promoting friendship, mutual understanding and trust, he
said.

“We are working towards implementing agreements
reached by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President V. Putin in
September, 2018 and those between Prime Ministers Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Dmitry
Medvedev. The two countries’ parliaments need to step up the development pace
of the bilateral ties using the existing cooperative forms and work together to
seek for new cooperative modes,” the State Duma leader said.

At noon, Chairwoman Ngan hosted a banquet in honour of the State Duma Chairman
V.V. Volodin.

Earlier on December 23, the State Duma delegation laid a wreath at the Monument
for Martyrs, paid tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum, and
visited the President Ho Chi Minh Relic Site in Hanoi.-VNA